How do you hang your Christmas stockings?

I get that question all the time. My favorite way is using a Christmas stocking rod.

It’s all About the Christmas Stocking Rod:

I use ONE curtain rod, or dowel, suspended between TWO traditional Christmas stocking holders. And that’s it!!!

It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Two stocking holders, only two, will hold the rod.

And this solution grows with your family. You can start with the curtain rod at its shortest length while your family is small and as your family grows, so can your rod. No need to run around trying to find another holder to match; or worse yet, ditch the ones you already have and start over. Phew!

Keep a look out for two heavy stocking holders that have a hook or loop large enough to slip a thin curtain rod, or wooden dowel for farmhouse style, through.

NOTE: The hooks do not need to circle down as mine do. They CAN be the typical simple up-turned cup. The important piece is the depth the weight sits back from the edge of the mantel.

It’s the playground physics we all learned on the teeter totter — the further back you sit, the more weight you can lift. Yes Mr Toler, my 7th grade science teacher, it’s the lever and torque physics principle. But, really we all know it as teeter totter physics, right?

So that’s the rod, but what about the stockings?

Now How to Hang Your Christmas Stockings Themselves:

When my stockings easily fit within the space, I just use a twist tie to attached each stocking loop to the rod.

Or with a short length of ribbon like above.

But when my grouping outgrows the allocated width and the cuffs start overlapping, then I like to tie the stockings to the rod with ribbons of varying lengths to vary the stagger the heights.

Now that you have reclaimed your mantel from the chorus line of individual stocking holders, you are free to decorate it any way you choose. Yippee!!!

Look closely. My two stocking holders, as pretty as they are, are buried behind my chosen decor. So really the decor determined the placement of the holders.

Can you see them?

All the way to the outside with the holders tucked back behind the pinecones and burlap trees. All the stockings are inside the two holders.

When the center of my mantel display is high, in this case the crossed vintage skis, if the holders were exposed in the center, they would be a distraction. So I hid them behind the pinecones and burlap trees on the ends.

How about this time?

Now they more toward the middle so the holders could hide on each side of the glass hurricane hidden behind the greenery sprays.

I just want to show you that you don’t need to let a lineup of stocking holders dictate your mantel display — a focal point of your holidays.

And if you just can’t find any stocking hangers that you think we work, or two stocking hangers are still two too many, check out this stocking stealth shelf solution.

Now you can start planning your mantel display with abandon!

The merriest to you,

Diane